Lost and Found
by Ariadnerue
Summary: In which Charming gets lost in his own castle, and Snow finds the perfect room. Snow/Charming, oneshot.


_Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time belongs to ABC._

_As soon as I finished my little Charming Family trilogy, I knew I wanted to write some Snow/Charming fluff. This is the third iteration. For some reason I had a hell of a time with this, and I'm still not sure I like how it turned out. Anyway, go listen to the song "Lost and Found" by Katie Herzig. I'd liked the song for a while, and then I got into this show, and I was like "Holy balls this song is about Snow and Charming." And then I punched myself in the face._

* * *

Prince Charming was having an exceedingly weird day.

For starters, Red was on the warpath because the full moon was coming up and one of the dwarves thought it would be funny to make a dog collar for her. Needless to say, she didn't find it funny. She wasn't sure which dwarf it was yet, but Charming's money was on Dopey. He never did have much sense.

Then there were the trolls. A troupe of them had come rolling into town yesterday, and by troupe, they literally meant troupe. They were apparently reformed bridge trolls who had discovered the arts, and they were now travelling minstrels. It made for an extremely awkward spectacle in the center of town, and nobody really wanted to get too close to them. So most of the guards were in the square just in case, with the double duty of making sure the trolls didn't fall back on their favorite pastime of murdering people and the people didn't decide to preemptively murder the trolls.

So that was a mess.

Everyone in the castle was running around in a tizzy because Prince Thomas was coming for a diplomatic visit. It was his fiancé Ella's first time meeting other royalty, so the castle staff wanted everything to look perfect.

And this brought Charming to his current problem.

Most of Snow's wardrobe still consisted of things she had killed, skinned, and made into clothing in the forest. Last he heard, she had been with the tailor being fitted for dresses and riding clothes and sleepwear and other such things. But a panicked handmaid had accosted him about an hour ago to inform him that Snow had snuck away and was currently missing.

So Charming had spent the last hour lost in his own castle, trying to find his wife.

The irony wasn't lost on him.

He hadn't lived in this castle very long in his stint as Prince James' replacement, and even when he did live here he only needed to know the path between his room and the main hall. Now the whole place belonged to him and Snow, and she had spent even less time here than he had. On top of that, he couldn't just ask for directions because the kingdom still thought he was James.

David sighed heavily and paused in an empty hallway. Growing up a shepherd had not prepared him for this. He wasn't even sure what part of the castle he was in at this point. But he figured Snow would have gone someplace to get away from all the hustle and bustle, so he was on the right track. He hadn't seen a single soul in some time now. He turned on the spot slowly. There were doors all along this hall, and one big door at the end. He paused.

The door at the end of the hall was just barely ajar. He smiled to himself. She was there. He knew it without a doubt. So he strolled down the hall and paused at the door. He listened at the threshold for a moment, but he didn't hear anything, so he pushed the door open just enough to slip through.

David found himself in an empty tower. Light poured in through round windows on all sides. Straight across was a door out to a balcony, and it was wide open. He stopped a moment to just look around the room. It was a pretty place, peaceful and warm. Something about this place felt special, and he wondered why it was empty.

Then he heard a sigh from the balcony, and he remembered his mission. He strode across the room and peered out the door.

"I don't know much about dress-fittings," he began lightly, leaning on the balcony doorframe. "But I'm fairly certain sneaking away to whittle isn't part of the process."

Snow didn't even look up from what she was doing, though she did laugh. She was sitting on the floor of the balcony, leaning against the tower wall beside the door. She was wearing what appeared to be a half-finished dress. The blue bodice was held together by pins, and the pale yellow skirt was uneven at the bottom. Her hair was down, tumbling around her shoulders in loose curls. Offsetting this lovely image was the hunting knife in her hand. She was using it to carve a chunk of wood and the shavings littered the ground around her. David couldn't tell what she was carving yet, but it was clear she had been hiding up here for some time.

"Well clearly you don't know much about dress-fittings," she replied.

He laughed and shook his head in exasperation. Finally she looked up at him, green eyes sparkling and a smirk on her face.

"You found me," she said simply.

He moved in front of her and sat down on the floor, leaning back against the balcony railing and sighing in relief as he settled down. Then he met her eyes, and they shared a long look.

"Did you ever doubt I would?" he asked, wearing a smirk of his own.

Snow burst out laughing, and it wasn't long before he joined in. She set aside her whittling and scooted toward him, climbed into his lap so she straddled his waist, and rested her hands at the back of his neck.

"Honestly, yeah I did," she replied airily. "Considering you're as lost in this castle as I am."

"Hey," he protested while she laughed again. "I happen to have an innate sense of direction."

"Oh really?" she shot back with an air of great surprise. "And just how long have you been looking for me?"

He made a face at her and she laughed triumphantly. He loved the sound of her laugh, but she was getting way too smug for his taste, so he cut her off by leaning in abruptly and kissing her.

It was a long, languid kiss, and he reveled in every second of it. It had been a few weeks since their wedding, and so far the only time they really had together was at night. They were always so busy, what with them ruling a kingdom and everything.

Snow seemed to be thinking along the same lines, since when she finally pulled away from him, it was just to lean her forehead against his and sigh.

"Are you going to make me go back?" she asked, pouting at him.

He laughed a bit and wrapped his arms around her waist. She smiled, his nearness sending a little shiver through her.

"No," he replied after a long pause, and she closed her eyes with a satisfied sigh. "I know how you feel, after all."

Her eyes fluttered open and she met his gaze.

"You do?" she asked with a doubtful smile.

"Well… kind of," he admitted sheepishly. She grinned. "Although our circumstances were reversed. You grew up in a castle, and then you lived in the forest. I grew up on a farm, and then I lived in a castle."

Snow looked down, laughing lightly. "I keep forgetting you haven't been a prince very long," she said. "It seems to me like you were born for it."

David scoffed, and she grinned at him.

"No, really," she laughed, trying to sound earnest. "Trust me, I grew up around royals, and they're not all cut out for leadership. There's just something about you, David."

He laughed at this, but she just smiled and closed her eyes comfortably.

"I like the way my name sounds when you say it," he said lowly, and her smile turned into a bit of a smirk at the tone.

"Do you?" she asked, leaning back a bit and looking at him. He had that mischievous look about him, the only time she could say he ever looked haughty or smug. It was a look that said she belonged to him, body and soul, and it lit a fire under her skin. So she leaned in close, lips brushing his ear.

"David," she whispered, and she grinned when she felt him shiver. "Hm… I prefer that to James. And yet I still think Charming suits you best."

"Well I like the way you say that, too," he replied lightly, turning his head to kiss her. But she leaned away from him, smirking, and he groaned in protest.

"Slow down, Charming," she purred. She ran a hand up into his hair and wiggled her hips a bit. He made a choked sort of noise, and she grinned in triumph. "No need to rush. Nobody knows we're here."

"Really? You're propositioning me on a balcony?" he laughed helplessly. She glanced over his shoulder.

"No, I guess not," she sighed. "We've been spotted."

David turned to look out from the balcony. They were straight across from another tower, directly facing the balcony leading off their bedroom. The same panicked maid David had run into earlier was on said balcony with a palace guard in tow, pointing in their direction.

Snow groaned and buried her face in David's chest. "I don't think I'll ever get used to all this again," she muttered. "Let's go live in the forest."

David laughed, and she smiled into his shirt. He wrapped his arms a little tighter around her and kissed the top of her head.

"As much as I like the sound of that," he sighed. "I think the rest of the kingdom might take issue."

"I suppose," she pouted as she sat up and met his eyes, a somewhat resigned half-smile on her face. David glanced over her shoulder.

"What were you carving, anyway?" he asked curiously, leaning around her and picking up the chunk of wood she had set aside. Snow shrugged a bit, but David noticed a light blush on her cheeks as she took the carving from his hand and looked at it thoughtfully.

"A unicorn," she said with a frown. He arched an eyebrow in question and she shrugged again. "I don't know, it's odd. I grabbed this piece of wood on my way here, and then I found this room…" She glanced over her shoulder into the empty tower. A thoughtful look came over her face, and David recognized it as the same look he had when he had first walked into the room. "I just immediately thought a mobile would look pretty in here, so I sat down and it turned into a unicorn."

She held it up, and David finally recognized it as a unicorn. She had only carved about half of it out of the wood, but he could see two legs, some of a tail, some of a horn. Something stirred in him at the sight of it, and he looked over her shoulder into the room.

"There's something special about this room," he said decidedly.

Snow nodded, following his gaze back into the tower. "I don't even know how I ended up here," she admitted. "I get so lost in this castle…"

She trailed off and abruptly got to her feet. David scrambled up after her and they walked into the room. They stood side by side in the center of the tower, both looking around silently.

"It's silly, but… I feel like I was meant to find this place," Snow whispered.

David took her hand in his. She glanced at him, smiling, and he smiled right back.

"It's not silly," he replied, lowering his voice to a whisper too. He wasn't sure why, it just felt like he should. "You were meant to find this place, and you led me here. I felt it the moment I walked in."

The quiet was interrupted by footsteps in the hall. The rustle and clank of armor indicated at least one guard, and if that poor handmaid had her way she would probably bring the whole army to make sure Snow was okay.

David and Snow shared a long look. Snow grinned and grabbed him by the lapels, hauling him down to her level and kissing him ardently. They broke apart just as the door creaked open. David glanced over to see that it was, in fact, the worried handmaid, and she had, in fact, brought a few guards, but Snow took his face in her hands and turned him back to look at her.

"This room will be the nursery," she said, eyes bright with excitement. The maid stopped the guards in the doorway and David stared at Snow, a smile slowly spreading across his face. He nodded slowly and reached up to take her hands in his.

"Yes, you're right," he said quietly. "We found this room…"

He trailed off, but Snow cut in and finished for him, breathless with excitement.

"Because this is where we will raise our child."


End file.
